Just Sign The Damned Autograph

Why can’t athletes just smile at kids and sign their stupid names for them?

As if karma and being a good human being weren’t motivation enough, how about this story from the recently retired Brendan Shanahan, about a chance meeting with his boyhood idol?

As a kid, Shanahan asked Toronto Mapleleaf Rick Vaive for an autograph when he ran into him at an ice rink. Shanny did not get a very pleasant reaction. He eventually got his payback:

â€œFast forward four years later and Rick Vaive is waiting for a meaningless faceoff in Buffalo,â€ Shanahan said. â€œHeâ€™s now playing for the Sabres. Heâ€™s lined up next to some 18-year-old kid from New Jersey. When the puck dropped, I attacked Rick Vaive.

â€œIt was a quiet, uneventful game. He couldnâ€™t believe the rage I had, not only in attacking him, but it took two (linesmen) to restrain me afterwards and throw me in the penalty box.â€